That's great news for us. It's only a matter of months ago that John Ryan was saying he doesn't want anything to do with Rugby League in Doncaster, nobody does. It felt uneasy being owned by a man who didn't care for our existence.

The current owners of Club Doncaster, brought us under that banner because they wanted us there. I'll stick with them.

Hmmm.... lets trust this Doncaster New Dawn is more sustainable that the many previous ones. What is different this time?

The difference is building from the bottom using the Sheffield formula, they now need to get back into the local schools to develop the amateur game and look towards fielding a amateur team in the summer just like the Eagles, the problem with the latter is the amount of quality players left available as many are already playing for the Eagles.

Carlsberg don't do Soldiers, but if they did, they would probably be Brits.

Jemmo, you can add posts like that all day as they are honest and informative. No axe to grind, loved the post.

I was the one to call Doncaster a soccer town (hands up) I did this based on the history of Sheffield rules and the development of soccer across places like Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley all of which led to keeping RL from the doorstep over 100 years ago.

My definition is soccer is as big in Donny as RL is small. isn't that also true when you yourself state that although it does not manifest itself as 20,000 crowds for Rovers you say "In Doncaster there are sports fans; a good proportion of them just watch football and a good proportion of them watch Sheffield United/Wednesday and Leeds"

So Donny people are big for soccer albeit not always rovers?? Am I right that the main junior RL club is Toll Bar? I guess there are dozens of Junior soccer clubs in Doncaster in contrast?

The other interesting observation you have linked to the above is that people will travel to watch top class sport. To justify the importance of Championship clubs I am often told that nobody from Halifax would watch Bradford and nobody from Leigh would watch Wigan and nobody from Keighley would watch Bradford either.

I think you have killed a ludicrous argument there Your honest assessment blows this out of the water.

Why do you keep saying Toll Bar are the main amateur club in Doncaster, when in fact they have been the lowest placed out of the 3 teams for over 20 years.

Carlsberg don't do Soldiers, but if they did, they would probably be Brits.

The difference is building from the bottom using the Sheffield formula, they now need to get back into the local schools to develop the amateur game and look towards fielding a amateur team in the summer just like the Eagles, the problem with the latter is the amount of quality players left available as many are already playing for the Eagles.

being involved as you are, can you say if this is happening?..and is it independent of the club itself?

I get the impression that Doncaster has struggled to maintain a foothold in the game right from the start in 1952, with a succession of "new dawns" that never really come...things seem to go well for a while and then the wheels seem to fall off..commercially. Is that impression correct?

Because I'm hoping and offering the likes of you good sir to explain the junior base Doncaster have in their area? The local kids who play the game in Doncaster who could feed the club.

They can get by without local kids, because they're ideally placed geographically to tap into the rich seam of talent from the Pontefract area, which includes Cas & Fev. With the upgrades to the motorway system around there it takes next to no time by car. Very quick from Hull too with the traffic on the M62 being very light to the east of the A1. Trouble is most Rugby League fans in between the two towns travel north to Fev or Cas.

I think Dewsbury's progress both on and off the field currently being under the radar would suit both the owner and the coaching staff. I believe they will have more of a say than Doncaster this year. Not only are performances impressive (although not Swiss watch consistent), they are starting to capture some interest.